Chords on a bass

[El_Charro]

I am relatively new to bass, but as my name implies, I work hard on theory. I have always heard that you don't strum chords on a bass because it gets "muddy". However to get the harmonics right, the bass will play a chord as an arpeggio. This is the entire theory behind walking bass lines.

A friend suggested that I try and play Bourree by J.S.Bach, as recorded by Jethro Tull.
I looked up the tabs, and saw to my amazement that the bass solo ends with about ten measures of all bass chords. Jethro Tull plays them as strummed chords, however as written by Bach, they are just the root and the 5th played simultaneously. I had never tried that before.

OMG the sound that they produce is utterly amazing. It results in such a beautiful fullness of tone. The only thing that approaches it musically is playing Chords on a harp. But of course the harp isn't known for such a low end, It just doesn't carry well.

Why aren't simple two note chords like these played more often on the bass. I have actually started to work on walking bass lines involving them... (Chord)-1st-3rd-5th...
or when chords change... (Chord)-1st-5th-(chord)-(new chord)-1st-3rd-5th.. etcetera. and various permutations of these. Now I have to get my 5 string semi-hollow body built to try them at the really low end. Although to avoid muddiness below low-E I might nee to play root and seventh, or some other variation.

From experience what do you all think.

————————————
Ever tried this tab???:

Orion Bass Tab by Metallica - C. Burton - Electric Bass (finger) | Songsterr Tabs with Rhythm

I’m a newbie, so I can’t really play the whole tab accurately, but there are chords, time changes and more amazing bass stuff than you can imagine:

 

[bass theory]

A few things. The root and 5th that you are referring to, and how full that sounds, are what are known as "power chords". They are most commonly used by guitarists when playing with distortion because playing a full 6-note barre chord with distortion can just be too busy, crowded, and a bit of a distorted blur in the music. So these power chords are both easier to play and to hear. A good example is "Smoke on the Water" by Deep Purple. That guitar riff is primarily power chords.

So the root and the 5th get the idea of a chord across even though lacking the third, there is no major or minor definition to it because they're not playing the 3rd and the 3rd is what gives it that chord its major or minor sound. You'll typically see a D power chord written on a chart as "D5" It's presumed a major chord, but if the bass decides to play a minor third in the pattern it can still sound good and can change the overall feeling of the chord. If you go playing power chords around guitar players though, it won't be long before you start getting the stink eye and, if you persist, told to stop.

Due to the register of the notes being played and the difficulty of hearing the chords clearly, you'll usually see bass chords used as part of bass solos or as accents at very specific places in a song where there's a lot of open space for the bass to do something such as play a chord where a bass chord can be clearly heard.

Another thing about chords, you need to have a really good cab to give them enough definition to actually hear all three notes of a complete chord. My DNS-210 and 410 cabs by DNA (I'm a DNA Endorsing Artist) do that really well. A cab with a muddy bottom end, won't do the trick. Also to avoid the muddy sound in bass chords, they are often played around or above the 12th fret. It's much easier to discern the difference in the notes when they're played up in a higher register. It's actually easier for the human ear to hear the difference between notes in those registers than in chords played down by the nut of the neck.

There's also a couple of different types of chords. There are open chords and closed chords. Open chords are usually played on a bass with one of the notes on the E string and the other two notes on the D and G string. Open chords have a bit of airiness or open space to the sound of the chord because some of the chord notes are more than an octave above the root. Closed chords are played with the notes closely together, typically on three adjacent strings and usually all notes are within an octave of the root. Closed chords sound more compact with less "space" because the notes are all closer together. They have what I would call a fuller sound to them.

So you can play the same chords with a different character to their sound by just going from a closed to an open version of the same chord and vice versa. You should play around with open and closed chords a bit on your recordings to get a feel for how they can change the character of the song.

Thank you for the explanation. Of course i have heard of power chords but thought they were limited to guitars. I hadn't given a thought to bass power chords. I just kind of discovered them and was awed by their clear tone quality. with the situation we are in this year, all of my playing is alone. The last band i was in I played drums, with a bass player who pretty much stayed with a steady rhythm style of play, without any flash. but, that band won't survive the pandemic. In fact the pandemic is probably the main reason I decided to switch to bass in earnest. I was clearly more advanced on drums, having played since i was 8, and although I wanted to learn bass... well couldn't put the time in to work on theory while working as an engineer, and playing drums. So i suppose I should thank the virus for giving me the chance to make the switch.
My cab is one i mashed up from some old Public address speakers. It features 2x 16" speakers powered by 300watt ultra-bass amp with 7 band equalizer. I get pretty good definition out of it, especially since It just sits at home this year. Perhaps that is the problem, I don't get the chance to play in a band setting as i am learning the instrument. besides, to paraphrase Groucho... I wouldn't play in a band that would have me as the bassist. at least not yet.

 

[Wasnex]

I don't think the transcription is 100% accurate, but definitely some cool double stops going on here.


Got to be one of the coolest TV theme songs evah!

I have played quite a few songs with occasional double stops that function sort of like horn punches.

Also I think 10ths tend to sound really nice on bass and I will occasionally use them when I feel it's appropriate.

Been soloing over the changes to Four lately and it can be fun to throw in a three note punch voiced (1,3,7) over one of the dominant chords. For context I play a 6-string bass and I play the punches up around 12th fret on the D,G, and C string. Same voicing and range sounds decent with Maj7 chords as well.

 

[selowitch]

Mike Mills of R.E.M. does plenty of strummed root-fifth pairs on his Rickenbacker bass in this tune (especially during the verses) from the album Murmur (1983). In fact, the bass really dominates here in places leaving the guitarist, Peter Buck, in a supportive role. It’s one of my favorite albums:

 

[Paul New]

Double stops are all over the place in rock. A few chords too. If you're really interested, look into incorporating harmonics.

If soloing, you can do whatever you want.

 

[RedJag]

While I don't know that this qualifies as chords per se, since it is more letting an open string ring out while playing other notes, this section of Schism by Tool has a very beautiful bass line, that often goes unheard in the full mix.

 

[Roxbororob]

It’s awesome in Bourree. I think it works best in solo stuff.

Wow

 

[DJJazzV]

A few months ago I recorded a fairly simple popular song with plenty of 2 note chords to play the vocal part.
This was a lot of fun to learn.

 

[lunarpollen]

The Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" bassline sounds to my ears like it has a whole bunch of double-stops scattered throughout

 

[NortyFiner]

Follow the bouncing ball...

 

[HolmeBass]

I love double and triple stops. I use them to punctuate basslines. I even wrote a bassline that was all double stops, but that is a special thing.

I will say in a regular band format I use double and triple stops more for punctuation in a line that is mostly single notes, more so than strumming chords all through a tune like a rhythm guitarist. Well, again except for that one song I wrote.

In solo playing you almost have to play multiple notes simultaneously.

A lot of famous bassists regularly use power chords (root - fifth, which is a dead) and/or tenths (also dyads), which allow you to imply the chord quality (major or minor). Phil Lesh and Chuck Rainy come immediately to mind as bassists whose musical voices are partially defined by chordal playing. Someone posted The Headhunter’s “Watermelon Man” where Paul Jackson makes it happen with 10ths. Geddy Lee uses double stop to on occasion. There is a cool double-stop section in “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers. Bass chords are actually pretty common, but again they are usually a textural change in part of what is otherwise mostly a one-note-at-a-time bass line.

One of my favorite things to do is explore inverting intervals - often inversions give better voicings for bass as it helps keep the tones further apart, which keeps it from sounding muddy. A minor 6th is an inverted major 3rd, and a major 6th is an inverted minor 3rd, check some of that out. Also 1-5-9 triple stop adds a cool sound to 9 chords, but I’ll also extend dom7 chords that way.

Then there is droning, which is for me a related but separate thing. Play the open D or A and fret notes along the G string. With the open A you can also fret double-stops on the D and G string together.

 

[OptimalOptimus]

 

[sonojono]

To add on here, anything is possible. My side project consisted of bass and drums where majority of the album I play chords on bass with distortion added in the effects chain to mimic a guitar sound.

 

[Chrisenbacker69]

Macca used double stops to fill just a bit more sonic space in the bridge sections of I Want to Hold Your Hand. Subtle, but useful and tasteful. My first experience with them as a player. I felt pretty good about myself when I got that down (that day, anyway).

 

[micguy]

The thing that prevents using chords musically is intermodulation distortion - aka beat notes, if you're using musician lingo. In your rig (mostly your speakers), In the PA, and if it's loud enough, even in the ears of the listeners, if you play two tones, the non-linearities in the system generate difference frequencies - a 3rd tone who's frequency is the difference between the two tones. They also create a tone who's frequency is the sum of the first two frequencies, but that tone is less problematic, so we'll focus on the difference tone. Intermod is particularly prevalent at lower frequencies - the non linear excursions of loudspeakers moving decent distances makes this phenomenon very strong and important in our musical "turf".

So, let's say you play a low E - 41 Hz. If you also play an octave above that at the same time (82 Hz), the difference tone is 82-41, which gives us 41Hz - the same as the low E. You can play octaves all the way down on a bass, even to the low B of a 5 string, and it'll sound OK through most rigs, because the difference tone is in sync with the fundamental of the lower note.

If you play a fifth, the higher note is 1.5 times the frequency of the first. So, a low E is again, 41 Hz, and the A (a fifth above) is 61.5 Hz. The difference frequency is 20.5 Hz - that's really low. Your rig won't handle that well, it'll sound like mud. But move up the scale of the bass, and things get better - an octave higher, you get 82 Hz, 123H, and a difference frequency third tone of 41 Hz - that will sound OK.

One neat trick, using intermod to your advantage. On a standard tuned 4 string bass, when you're playing a D, a lot of the time, you wish you could play the D an octave lower, but you can't. If you play the D on the A string, and the A a fifth higher, the difference frequency that combination creates is....the note you wish you could play. Most (but not all) rigs willl do OK with that combination of notes. That double stop sounds thicker and lower than the D alone, and is a decent workaround to not having a 5 string for that partricular case. But go much lower thatn that with fifths, and you're back in trouble.

If you go to thirds, the frequency spacing gets closer - a minor third is closer than a major third, which enters into things.

The upshot of all of this is, the higher you go in pitch, the closer the musical interval you can play, and have it sound good. It's the laws of Physics, the limitations of your gear, and psychoacoustics that determine all of this.

 

[LetItGrowTone]

Just a reply to the above post:
@micguy, when I played 6-string electric guitar (always only by myself), my choices in amplification and style of play evolved toward the maximum usage of diads and difference frequencies (starting before I realized what I was doing), as though I were trying to sound like a 6-string and a bass playing together. Of course, when I started playing with other people and the bass started playing I lost my whole schtick! It was horrible. Now I know I should have started on bass.

So I know that in many cases the guitar player keeps turning up because he's trying to keep his difference notes audible over the bass.

On bass, wanting to hear the difference notes clearly continues to affect my equipment choices. Need tight speaker damping, for example.

 

[micguy]

So I know that in many cases the guitar player keeps turning up because he's trying to keep his difference notes audible over the bass.

Guitarists turn up because they think they're there to drown out the bass - that hearing the bass make them less important somehow. What they don't understand is that their purpose is to just add a little sparkle to the bass line.

 

[39-Bassist]

I usually don't go with cords on a bass it puts undue tension on the output jack, I prefer wireless...OH you meant playing chords on bass...lol
Personally I like them but as as others have said they really don' t fit into the song a lot. But I do use them occasionally when they fit into the music for that, oh what did he play there, moment.
Have fun experimenting with them in making your own music.

 

[Scarysharkface]

I am relatively new to bass, but as my name implies, I work hard on theory. I have always heard that you don't strum chords on a bass because it gets "muddy". However to get the harmonics right, the bass will play a chord as an arpeggio. This is the entire theory behind walking bass lines.

A friend suggested that I try and play Bourree by J.S.Bach, as recorded by Jethro Tull.
I looked up the tabs, and saw to my amazement that the bass solo ends with about ten measures of all bass chords. Jethro Tull plays them as strummed chords, however as written by Bach, they are just the root and the 5th played simultaneously. I had never tried that before.

OMG the sound that they produce is utterly amazing. It results in such a beautiful fullness of tone. The only thing that approaches it musically is playing Chords on a harp. But of course the harp isn't known for such a low end, It just doesn't carry well.

Why aren't simple two note chords like these played more often on the bass. I have actually started to work on walking bass lines involving them... (Chord)-1st-3rd-5th...
or when chords change... (Chord)-1st-5th-(chord)-(new chord)-1st-3rd-5th.. etcetera. and various permutations of these. Now I have to get my 5 string semi-hollow body built to try them at the really low end. Although to avoid muddiness below low-E I might nee to play root and seventh, or some other variation.

From experience what do you all think.

Geddy does some nice bass chord work. Chris Squire did quite a bit as well.

John

 

[HolmeBass]

I don't think the transcription is 100% accurate, but definitely some cool double stops going on here.


Got to be one of the coolest TV theme songs evah!

I have played quite a few songs with occasional double stops that function sort of like horn punches.

Also I think 10ths tend to sound really nice on bass and I will occasionally use them when I feel it's appropriate.

Been soloing over the changes to Four lately and it can be fun to throw in a three note punch voiced (1,3,7) over one of the dominant chords. For context I play a 6-string bass and I play the punches up around 12th fret on the D,G, and C string. Same voicing and range sounds decent with Maj7 chords as well.

That is an incredibly deft bass performance for sure, but it’s not Chuck Rainey. Also there is one point where two different bass tracks overlap that is pretty difficult to play as recorded.

“The bassist is Craig Akin. The tune is “The Streetbeater” by Quincy Jones – but you may know it better as the theme to Sanford and Son.” From Google, attribution is from NoTreble, but there used to be a Wikipedia entry that also showed not Chuck Rainey and not Carol Kaye, although firmly and masterfully in that style.